Causal Sets: Quantum gravity from a fundamentally discrete spacetime

In order to construct a quantum theory of gravity, we may have to abandon certain assumptions we were making. In particular, the concept of spacetime as a continuum substratum is questioned. Causal Sets is an attempt to construct a quantum theory of gravity starting with a fundamentally discrete spacetime. In this contribution we review the whole approach, focusing on some recent developments in the kinematics and dynamics of the approach.Comment: 10 pages, review of causal sets based on talk given at the 1st MCCQG conferenc

Quantum Reality Filters

An anhomomorphic logic \ascript ^* is the set of all possible realities for a quantum system. Our main goal is to find the "actual reality" \phi_a\in\ascript ^* for the system. Reality filters are employed to eliminate unwanted potential realities until only $\phi_a$ remains. In this paper, we consider three reality filters that are constructed by means of quantum integrals. A quantum measure $\mu$ can generate or actualize a \phi\in\ascript ^* if $\mu (A)$ is a quantum integral with respect to $\phi$ for a density function $f$ over events $A$. In this sense, $\mu$ is an "average" of the truth values of $\phi$ with weights given by $f$. We mainly discuss relations between these filters and their existence and uniqueness properties. For example, we show that a quadratic reality generated by a quantum measure is unique. In this case we obtain the unique actual quadratic reality.Comment: 25 page

The role of laboratory test biomarkers in diagnosis, risk assessment, and monitoring of COVID-19 patients

Government officials, healthcare providers, and scientists continue their efforts to identify and find ways of treatment regarding the coronavirus infection (CoV), also known as Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. This is due to the fact that the COVID-19 infection is ongoing and there is a possibility of new infections or new waves of disease. In addition to this possibility, there is also the continuity of the COVID-19 infection (SARS-CoV-2). Researchers have a pressing need for adequate biomarkers that are associated with the progression of SARS-CoV-2 in order to stratify patients who are at high risk. Because the disease can spread so rapidly, patients need to be classified into risk groups as soon as possible after their diagnosis in order to make the most efficient use of available resources. In addition, new markers are required in order to identify patients who have a rapid progression of their disease, which can lead to death or a serious infection. It is essential to gain a comprehension of the viral pathogenetic mechanisms, as well as the cellular and organ damage, prior to the discovery of novel biomarkers. The clinical management, screening, and prevention of serious complications could all be improved with the use of reliable biomarkers. To effectively manage the COVID-19 pandemic, future prevention, prompt diagnosis, superior treatment, and precise detection are not only extremely important but also have the potential to assist in reducing the spread of the virus. According to the conventional medical consensus, biomarkers play a very important role in the prompt detection of the etiology, treatment, diagnosis, and prognosis of a disease. This work discusses emerging and known biomarkers for detecting SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics, prognosis, and treatment in order to assist the numerous innovations and investigations that are currently taking place

Quantum Dynamics without the Wave Function

When suitably generalized and interpreted, the path-integral offers an alternative to the more familiar quantal formalism based on state-vectors, selfadjoint operators, and external observers. Mathematically one generalizes the path-integral-as-propagator to a {\it quantal measure} $\mu$ on the space $\Omega$ of all ``conceivable worlds'', and this generalized measure expresses the dynamics or law of motion of the theory, much as Wiener measure expresses the dynamics of Brownian motion. Within such ``histories-based'' schemes new, and more ``realistic'' possibilities open up for resolving the philosophical problems of the state-vector formalism. In particular, one can dispense with the need for external agents by locating the predictive content of $\mu$ in its sets of measure zero: such sets are to be ``precluded''. But unrestricted application of this rule engenders contradictions. One possible response would remove the contradictions by circumscribing the application of the preclusion concept. Another response, more in the tradition of ``quantum logic'', would accommodate the contradictions by dualizing $\Omega$ to a space of ``co-events'' and effectively identifying reality with an element of this dual space.Comment: plainTeX, 24 pages, no figures. To appear in a special volume of {\it Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General} entitled ``The Quantum Universe'' and dedicated to Giancarlo Ghirardi on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Most current version is available at http://www.physics.syr.edu/~sorkin/some.papers/ (or wherever my home-page may be

Dynamics & Predictions in the Co-Event Interpretation

Sorkin has introduced a new, observer independent, interpretation of quantum mechanics that can give a successful realist account of the 'quantum microworld' as well as explaining how classicality emerges at the level of observable events for a range of systems including single time 'Copenhagen measurements'. This 'co-event interpretation' presents us with a new ontology, in which a single 'co-event' is real. A new ontology necessitates a review of the dynamical & predictive mechanism of a theory, and in this paper we begin the process by exploring means of expressing the dynamical and predictive content of histories theories in terms of co-events.Comment: 35 pages. Revised after refereein

Evolving robotic surgery training and improving patient safety, with the integration of novel technologies

INTRODUCTION: Robot-assisted surgery is becoming increasingly adopted by multiple surgical specialties. There is evidence of inherent risks of utilising new technologies that are unfamiliar early in the learning curve. The development of standardised and validated training programmes is crucial to deliver safe introduction. In this review, we aim to evaluate the current evidence and opportunities to integrate novel technologies into modern digitalised robotic training curricula. METHODS: A systematic literature review of the current evidence for novel technologies in surgical training was conducted online and relevant publications and information were identified. Evaluation was made on how these technologies could further enable digitalisation of training. RESULTS: Overall, the quality of available studies was found to be low with current available evidence consisting largely of expert opinion, consensus statements and small qualitative studies. The review identified that there are several novel technologies already being utilised in robotic surgery training. There is also a trend towards standardised validated robotic training curricula. Currently, the majority of the validated curricula do not incorporate novel technologies and training is delivered with more traditional methods that includes centralisation of training services with wet laboratories that have access to cadavers and dedicated training robots. CONCLUSIONS: Improvements to training standards and understanding performance data have good potential to significantly lower complications in patients. Digitalisation automates data collection and brings data together for analysis. Machine learning has potential to develop automated performance feedback for trainees. Digitalised training aims to build on the current gold standards and to further improve the 'continuum of training' by integrating PBP training, 3D-printed models, telementoring, telemetry and machine learning

Transforming the Law of One : Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath from a Kristevan perspective

A recent trend in the study of Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath often dissociates Confessional poetry from the subject of the writer and her biography, claiming that the artist is in full control of her work and that her art does not have naïve mimetic qualities. However, this study proposes that subjective attributes, namely negativity and abjection, enable a powerful transformative dialectic. Specifically, it demonstrates that an emphasis on the subjective can help manifest the process of transgressing the law of One. The law of One asserts a patriarchal, monotheistic law as a social closed system and can be opposed to the bodily drives and its open dynamism. This project asserts that unique, creative voices are derived from that which is individual and personal and thus, readings of Confessional poetry are in fact best served by acknowledgment of the subjective. In order to stress the subject of the artist in Confessionalism, this study employed a psychoanalytical Kristevan approach. This enables consideration of the subject not only in terms of the straightforward narration of her life, but also in relation to her poetic language and the process of creativity where instinctual drives are at work. This study further applies a feminist reading to the subject’s poetic language and its ability to transgress the law, not necessarily in the political, macrocosmic sense of the word, but rather on the microcosmic, subjective level. Although Sexton and Plath possess similar biographies, their work does not have the same artistic value in terms of transformative capabilities. Transformation here signifies transgressing of the unity of the subject and of the authoritative father, the other within, who has prohibitive social and linguistic powers. Plath, Kristeva’s the “deadmost,” successfully confronts the unity of the law, releasing the death drive through anger. Moreover, Plath’s psychic borders are more fluid because of her ability to identify with the pre-Oedipal mother. This unsettling subject is identified by shifts in texts marked by renewal, transgression, and jouissance. Unlike Sexton, Plath is able to achieve transformation as she oscillates masochistically between the “inside” and the “outside” of her psychic borders, and between the symbolic and the semiotic. Furthermore, this enables Plath to develop the unique “Siren Voice of the Other.” In comparison, Sexton, the “dead/less,” evades any confrontation with the maternal and the performance of death in her poetry. Her case is further complicated by the discovery of a second mother. As a result, passivity becomes a main characteristic of her work. This passivity remains until the maternal abject bursts in her text and she reacts to this by performing cleansing rituals, and gravitating toward a symbolic father. Without the dynamism of transgression, Sexton’s work is heterogeneous but does not achieve ultimate transformation and jouissance. Confessional poetry, in this sense, takes on a new dimension. The life stories of the poets become important not for their pejorative, pathological aspects that focus on narrative mimesis, but rather for their manifestation as an aesthetic process. The subject of the writer becomes important as an aesthetic identity in the poems, which are rooted in real life. The main concern then becomes the aesthetic transformative dialectic between the semiotic and the symbolic in her work of art.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServicePhiladelphia University, JordanGBUnited Kingdo